Generation tech gaps not widening

Carole Moore

By Carole Moore

Published: Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 09:00 AM.

When my son was little, he expressed amazement that I grew up without a microwave oven. How, he wondered, did we cook food? “On the stove, just like I do now.” I told him. But, he asked, what about frozen microwave dishes and things like popcorn? Did we just do without them?

Yes and no, I told him. We didn’t have frozen microwavable dishes. We had frozen dinners we put in the oven. And we had popcorn poppers or we popped corn on top of the stove. I explained the miracle of the old Jiffy Pop pans with the little expanding aluminum foil tops that got bigger as the corn popped. My son thought I was making it all up. After all, microwaves were as natural to him as a fork and knife were to me.

But then I started thinking. When I was young, I was amazed to learn that my parents and grandparents often slept on the screened-in back porch of their house. In fact, in the days before air conditioners were in homes, sleeping porches were pretty common and the whole family would camp out on the porch in hopes of catching a faint bit of a breeze stirring the hot, humid Southern summer air.

When air conditioning became available for the masses, my parents embraced the technology with enthusiasm. My father, in particular, was not fond of heat and believed that central air conditioning was as much of a necessity as running water and indoor plumbing. I guess he was making up for all of those blazing
Mississippi
summers of his childhood by setting our thermostat on sub-zero temperatures. My mom, sister and I froze half to death when Daddy was in charge of the atmospheric conditions on the home front.

And, it was no surprise to us that when our father was stationed in
Viet Nam
, he somehow managed to scrounge a window air conditioning unit for his quarters. He couldn’t carry it out onto the field, but when he was aboard the base, he slept in comfort. When it came to being cool, my father wasn’t going to so much as breathe warm air, if he could help it.

But he didn’t live to see microwave ovens become as common as air conditioning. The first one we owned was one my mother handed down to us. It was an early model and she paid a fortune for it. And it was as big as a table for four and as heavy as an anvil. You could microwave a whole turkey in it and still have room for a couple of side dishes. Now we’re on about our 10th microwave oven and they have become more sophisticated each time we replaced one.

Funny how each generation takes for granted that the previous one grew up with the same technological advances. I suppose that one day my son’s child will look at him with amazement when he tells him that, “No, we didn’t vacation in outer space when I was a kid.” And I just hope I’m there to confirm his story.

When my son was little, he expressed amazement that I grew up without a microwave oven. How, he wondered, did we cook food? “On the stove, just like I do now.” I told him. But, he asked, what about frozen microwave dishes and things like popcorn? Did we just do without them?

Yes and no, I told him. We didn’t have frozen microwavable dishes. We had frozen dinners we put in the oven. And we had popcorn poppers or we popped corn on top of the stove. I explained the miracle of the old Jiffy Pop pans with the little expanding aluminum foil tops that got bigger as the corn popped. My son thought I was making it all up. After all, microwaves were as natural to him as a fork and knife were to me.

But then I started thinking. When I was young, I was amazed to learn that my parents and grandparents often slept on the screened-in back porch of their house. In fact, in the days before air conditioners were in homes, sleeping porches were pretty common and the whole family would camp out on the porch in hopes of catching a faint bit of a breeze stirring the hot, humid Southern summer air.

When air conditioning became available for the masses, my parents embraced the technology with enthusiasm. My father, in particular, was not fond of heat and believed that central air conditioning was as much of a necessity as running water and indoor plumbing. I guess he was making up for all of those blazing Mississippi summers of his childhood by setting our thermostat on sub-zero temperatures. My mom, sister and I froze half to death when Daddy was in charge of the atmospheric conditions on the home front.

And, it was no surprise to us that when our father was stationed in Viet Nam, he somehow managed to scrounge a window air conditioning unit for his quarters. He couldn’t carry it out onto the field, but when he was aboard the base, he slept in comfort. When it came to being cool, my father wasn’t going to so much as breathe warm air, if he could help it.

But he didn’t live to see microwave ovens become as common as air conditioning. The first one we owned was one my mother handed down to us. It was an early model and she paid a fortune for it. And it was as big as a table for four and as heavy as an anvil. You could microwave a whole turkey in it and still have room for a couple of side dishes. Now we’re on about our 10th microwave oven and they have become more sophisticated each time we replaced one.

Funny how each generation takes for granted that the previous one grew up with the same technological advances. I suppose that one day my son’s child will look at him with amazement when he tells him that, “No, we didn’t vacation in outer space when I was a kid.” And I just hope I’m there to confirm his story.